Loss By Weeds And Insects

It is estimated tliat the value oï produco annually raised in tliis country is $2,500,000,000, of whieh amount nearly or quite one fifth, or $500,000,000, is lost, according to tl) o Anu rh-nn Naturalist, from tlio attacks of iiijurious plants and animáis. A singlo campaign of tbo army worm cost the farmers of Eastern Massaclmsetts $250,000 worth of grass. Missouri alone loses from ñíteen to twenty millioii dollars annually from insect depredations. The annual damage to the apple and pear erop from tho oodling moth amounts to several million dollars, and the work of the eurculio ÍB costly. A partial remedy is to bc found in a close study of insect habits, with a viow to ascertaining what insects there are wliich hold the depredators in check and destroy them. It is hardly possible to estímate the havoc annually wrought by the grasshoppor and the potato beetle, for example, and any bird or insect wlnch would reduce such pesta wouldbü a substantial benefactor to the farmer. As to the " injiuïous plants," or, in the common vernaonlax, weeds, tho only method that is feasible is to kill them at their very germination by_ means of proper agricultural machines. The Country Gentleman aflirms that the annual growth of weeds in tlns country amounts to eight miliion tons, or enough to load a compact train of wagons long enough to span the globe.